Undergraduate Education

Undergraduate Education: EPM Lite

The Essential Pain Management Programme (EPM) was originally developed in Australia and New Zealand by Roger Goucke and Wayne Morriss as an educational tool for health care workers in low- and middle-income countries. The first course was held in Papua New Guinea in April 2010. In 2013, the EPM UK Working Group was established, with the purpose of running EPM courses across Africa. EPM Lite is a scaled-down version of the full EPM course, and is designed to be delivered to medical undergraduates in half a day. It was developed with the additional help of Linda Huggins, a UK pain medicine trained anaesthetist now working as a Palliative Medicine Specialist in New Zealand. The UK Faculty of Pain Medicine took on introducing EPM Lite as a project in 2014, and the first UK EPM Lite course was held in Bristol in September that year. The course helps students understand classifications of pain, why pain should be treated, and an overview of different drug and non-drug treatments. The half day course is flexible as the content and timings can be amended to suit group size and level of teaching.

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Pain Patient Pathways

BPS Pain Patient Pathways Microsite

The British Pain Society is delighted to announce that the Microsite for the Pain Patient Pathways is now live! BPS Members who do not have access to the Map of Medicine portal, may now view the British Pain Society endorsed pathways by accessing the following link: http://bps.mapofmedicine.com

With the aim of establishing normal patterns of management for chronic pain sufferers, the British Pain Society has been working to produce several new pain patient pathways. These are based upon NICE guidelines, scientific evidence and other published guidelines where possible. These pathways can be used to support care and commissioning.

There are five in total:

Initial assessment and early management of pain

Spinal pain

Pelvic pain

Chronic widespread pain, including fibromyalgia

Neuropathic pain.

They have been published and are also accessible on the Map of Medicine website (http://www.mapofmedicine.com/).To access these on the Map of Medicine website, you need to be in the ENGLAND view.

Comments

We welcome feedback on the pathways and are pleased to receive your comments. We will process your comments as follows:

All comments received will initially be reviewed by the Pathway Working Party for that pathway.

Comments deemed urgent will be addressed at the earliest available opportunity (usually once a month, mid-month in-line with Map of Medicine publishing dates).

Other comments seen as relevant, but not urgent, will be collated and considered by the Pathway Review Working Party alongside the Chairs of the relevant Pathway Working Groups, at the time of the agreed review period (being 18 months from publication date) and any changes made as appropriate.

Further Information

e-PAIN: first two modules now online

Thousands of people are affected by acute or chronic pain every year in the UK. For some this is short term due to illness or injury, for others chronic pain is a way of life. The National Pain Audit highlighted the inconsistencies with which pain is managed across primary and secondary care and, despite recent advances in both areas, patients are often referred too late for these services to make any significant difference.
e-PAIN is a multi-disciplinary programme designed to improve the early diagnosis and management of pain. The programme is aimed at all NHS healthcare professionals who do not specialise in pain medicine, but regularly encounter patients suffering from acute or chronic pain. Staff will learn to:

The programme consists of engaging and highly interactive 30 minute e-learning sessions and assessments. All training is recorded in the learning management system and can be used as evidence of continuing professional development.
The programme includes training modules on: Basic Pain Management, Basic Science, Pharmacological and Nonpharmacological Treatment, Acute Pain, Neuropathic/Nerve Pain and Cancer Pain. The first two modules ‘Basic Pain Management’ and ‘Basic Science’ are now online, with the remaining modules being released over the next six months.

Dr Douglas Justins, Clinical Lead for e-PAIN says: ‘This exciting and important project will help improve the recognition, assessment and safe treatment of unrelieved pain resulting in the significant improvement of patient care.’

The e-PAIN programme has been developed by the Faculty of Pain Medicine in partnership with the British Pain Society and e-Learning for Healthcare. The official launch will be held on Tuesday 3rd December at the Royal College of Anaesthetists. The launch event will demonstrate the programme’s benefits to patients and health professionals and will
provide an opportunity for hands-on experience.

Notes to Editors:
The Faculty of Pain Medicine of the Royal College of Anaesthetists is the professional body responsible for the training, assessment, practice and continuing professional development of specialist medical practitioners in the management of pain in the UK. It supports a multi-disciplinary approach to pain management informed by evidence-based practice and research. For more information, please visit:http://www.fpm.ac.uk

e-Learning for Healthcare (e-LfH) is a Health Education England programme in partnership with the NHS and professional bodies, providing high quality e-learning content for the training of the healthcare workforce across the UK. For more information, please visithttp://www.e-lfh.org.uk

The British Pain Society is the largest multidisciplinary professional organisation in the field of pain within the UK and aims to promote education, training, research and development in all fields of pain. It endeavours to increase both professional and public awareness of the prevalence of pain and the facilities that are available for its management. For more information, please visit:http://www.britishpainsociety.org/